Music
Intent
At Swindon Academy, our music curriculum is designed to inspire and engage all pupils, nurturing a deep love for music. Through practical experiences and exposure to a wide range of musical styles, we aim to develop students’ creativity, confidence, and appreciation of cultural diversity. As well as this, pupils are provided with the opportunity to:
- Encourage a love of music while developing: Self-confidence, Creativity and a Sense of achievement
- Provide opportunities to: Compose, listen to, perform, and evaluate music
- Introduce pupils to a wide range of musical genres and styles to build: Cultural awareness, historical and contextual understanding and a sense of time and place.
- Use a practical, hands-on approach including: performance opportunities, use of instruments and an exposure to recorded and live music.
- Offer expressive outlets to support creativity, individuality, confidence, well-being, and mindfulness.
- Broaden pupils' horizons and appreciation of music’s importance in society
Implementation
Our carefully designed music curriculum not only meets but exceeds the expectations of the National Curriculum. Our curriculum is adapted from Charanga and follows the National Curriculum (2014) and Early Years guidance.
Music is taught weekly in Key Stages 1 and 2 and is tailored to the specific needs of our pupils, ensuring all students have the opportunity to grow as musicians through a wide variety of engaging and enriching experiences:
- Develop pupils’ musical abilities by enabling them to:
- Appraise music across various historical periods, genres, styles, and traditions
- Sing and use their voices in lessons, concerts, and school productions
- Play tuned and untuned instruments with care and control
- Create and compose music individually and collaboratively (including using graphic scores and staff notation)
- Include daily Music Appreciation sessions:
- Introduce a new theme weekly and a new song daily
- Expose pupils to a wide range of musical styles, cultures, and periods
- Encourage reflection and discussion using appropriate musical vocabulary
- Provide regular opportunities for classroom discussion around musical content
- Offer Extra-Curricular Activities such as the Winter Performance and external festivals.
Impact
By the end of their primary journey, pupils at Swindon Academy will have developed a broad and well-rounded musical skillset. They will be confident in performing, composing, and evaluating music, and will be equipped with the vocabulary and experience to appreciate music in its many forms.
- Listen to, review, and evaluate a variety of musical styles and traditions
- Express informed opinions using musical vocabulary
- Experience playing both tuned and untuned instruments
- A foundational understanding of musical notation
- Opportunities to showcase skills in internal and external performances